Flowering cherry outside the cathedral in Charlotte last night, when I went in for choir practice. It was a good practice, nice to see friends whom I don't see often, and a lovely lot of music to practice, including a Mendelssohn "Confitebor." None of it's that hard --- I mostly need to talk through the offertory motet to get the words and rhythms right. The notes themselves aren't hard.
Today: essay-writing, email-answering, dog-walking, weightlifting, and (I hope) some work on my own private projects.
Wearing:
*Wool& Willow dress (M/Long) in Ocean Teal, bought October 2023
*The thrifted Eddie Bauer 25-cent cardigan
*Secondhand Allbirds tencel-merino navy leggings, bought May 2023
*Secondhand Birkenstock Rosemeads, bought March 2023
It's pretty chilly out right now, at 33F, so I'll need to put on socks and boots to go out this morning. The high is not unpleasant, near 60F --- and the week is supposed to warm up a bit as it goes.
Day 4 hair in a claw-clip updo. It still feels pretty clean, but is not holding any of its natural curl, so getting it out of my way seemed the best option for the day. The current length, not quite at my shoulders, is surprisingly good for updos --- much longer and there's just too much hair to contend with. Much shorter and it won't stay up, even in a simple ponytail. Note to self, re hair length.
Here's kind of basically how it looks:
I did one of those things where you make a ponytail, then slide your elastic (or in my case, small fabric scrunchie) toward the end of the ponytail, and then, dividing the hair a little above the ponytail, carefully start to stuff that end into the divide, clipping it once it's all inside.
I love these claw clips --- they're not large, but they do have really long teeth/claws and hold a lot of hair. I've discovered that they're good for holding a basic ponytail, too --- another good alternative to avoid breakage.
I'm switching back and forth between my regular blue glasses and my silver wire-rimmed transition glasses, as I'm indoors and out.
The blue does better things for my coloring, but I really like the size of these --- my perfect glasses would be this size and shape, but plastic and blue.
I'd love to shrink the blue glasses by one standard deviation, though honestly, I do see better with more lens real estate. The wire glasses (which were very cheap) don't have nosepieces and are generally not as comfortable to wear as my plastic glasses. I do really love them outdoors as sunglasses, though, and it's great to have that option. Everyone's going to think I'm so cool, walking my dog in my shades . . .
Which, honestly, I had better bundle up and go do. She sleeps pretty late and is very patient with my slow mornings, but my dog-free time is about up here.
LUNCHTIME UPDATE:
*short walk with the dog
*work on an essay
*emails answered
*poem revised
I haven't been recording my reading of late, but here are some things:
Rereads:
*Dickens's Little Dorrit
*Barbara Pym's Excellent Women (I was feeling really tired and drained and although I needed a new book to read, incapable of choosing anything)
*Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede (ongoing, and I'm not sure how committed I am, but I have read this book multiple times)
New reads:
*Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (I'd read a good bit of James, but not that one, which is pretty weird --- read it yesterday in more or less one sitting)
*David Lodge, The Art of Fiction (ongoing --- there are many books called The Art of Fiction, and I've read some of them, but not this particular one)
I have numerous new books of poetry waiting to be read, but in fact the only ones I'm reading currently, as books, are ones I'm writing blurbs for and am speed-reading.
Oh, here are the sunglasses looking like sunglasses. I'd just come in from outdoors, and they had started to lighten again, but not too rapidly for me to get a photo:
It's maybe a little silly that I'm having so much fun with these glasses, but honestly --- I have not had good sunglasses, really ever. And I like that I can keep wearing these indoors. They're not as nice or as comfortable as the blue glasses, but I'm actually impressed at how well made they seem. For the price, I was expecting something a lot flimsier. They're actually children's frames, which I think will be my go-to from now on, for a better fit.
And now I'm going to eat some lunch. I made beef-and-black-bean chili last night before leaving for choir, and there's enough left that I'm just eating it for all three meals today. The husband is out late tonight, and I cannot be bothered making something else. It is good chili. They also say --- whoever exactly they are in this instance --- that ground beef is a superior protein, because it includes more collagen than actual cuts of beef. So we've been eating a lot of it lately, to feed our muscles, joints, skin, hair, etc. I'll consume this chili, then later on I'll heft some weights.
LATER (chili consumed, some weights hefted):
Oh, actually, today is the vernal equinox, so enough of this "winter into spring" business, I guess. Of course, it is kind of cold.